Brighton support slot for YONAKA

Brighton-based four-piece YONAKA are supporting The Libertines at the Brighton Centre on Monday, October 2.

Singer Theresa Jarvis said: “We love them. Sadly, we are just doing the Brighton date, but it will be amazing.

“We are based in Brighton. We have been together for about two and a half to three years. We have been gigging for a couple of years, but we have been friends for about seven years. We were all doing different things before, and then we just started playing together.

“Me and George started together, and it just felt amazing. It was just an insane feeling. It was just so natural. We didn’t think about what was coming out, but what was coming out was instantly perfect. We had, neither of us, experienced anything quite like it before. It was just this crazy feeling that we had never known, and we knew what we were doing was quite special.”

And from that the band emerged.

“We booked a gig a month away. We only had one song at that point, but we worked towards the gig. We started to put some songs together.”

Progress since has been good: “Sometimes you feel like you are moving. Sometimes you feel like you are going absolutely nowhere. It is a weird push and pull, but it is always exciting.

“We are going to release an EP. We have only got three songs out there at the moment which is ridiculous, but we have got quite a lot, and we are doing the EP. I think there will be four songs on there. It will be our first EP. It has been a question of finding the right moment. We have only really been gigging for two years, and recording and making records for about a year. We are just wanting to make sure it is perfect.

“For the EP, we will just choose our best songs, the ones that we enjoy playing the most, the ones that get the best reaction on stage, but we want to try to make it cohesive as well so that it fits together.

“I would say the music is alternative heavy pop. I am the singer. I haven’t trained, but I have been singing for ages. When I was at school, I did a play. I used to love acting, and I had the chance to sing. I sung like an S Club 7 song, and it just felt amazing. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever done, but it was also fantastic. It just felt wicked, and so I have been singing ever since.”

Now the big focus is the band.

“We all quit our jobs earlier this year which felt amazing. I was doing a nine-to-five job, and I thought I was so busy, but it is nothing compared to what it has been like working on the band all the time.”